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338
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(DECEMBER, 1885.
latter there exudes a gum without the aid of
11. PEPPER (Térrepe). lac insects. It may, I think, be accepted as Piper nigrum, Linn.-Black Pepper. (Sansk., almost certain that the so-called dried fruits
pippali). were, as has been explained, the dried flowers "Mr. M'Crindle's note on this subject, when of the mahure, which are at the present time referring to the mention of it in the Periplus, largely used as an article of food, and for the is as follows :-"Kottonarik pepper exported extraction of an intoxicating spirit by distilla- in large quantities from Mouziris and Neltion. Both trees are found together in the kynda ; long pepper from Barygaza. Kottonars samo jungles.
was the name of the district, and Kottonarikon 9. LYCIUN (AÚktov).
the name of the pepper for which the district Berberis tinctoria, D. C., and B. lycium, was famous. Dr. Buchanan identifies Kottonara Rogle.
with Kadattanadu, a district in the Calicut This substance, which, according to the (Kalikotta) country celebrated for its pepper. Periplus," was exported from Barbarikon (i.e. Dr. Barnell, however, identifies it with Kolattaa town on the Indus, in Indo-Skythia), and nadu, the district about Tellicherry, which, he from Barygaza, i.e. Bharoch, was a plant says, is the pepper district." whose roots yielded a dye, and the extract a Malabar continues to produce the best pep. medicine.
per in the world ; but Sumatra and other It has already been identified, as pointed out islands cultivate and export largely. by Mr. M'Crindle," with the rasaut of the The pepper vine is planted near trees which natives, which is prepared from the two species it ascends to the height of 20 or 30 feet. The of Berberry named above. The first of them, berries, which are collected before being quite B. tinctoria, is found both in the Himalayas ripe, are dried in the sun; white pepper only and the mountains of Southern India and differs from black by having the outer skin Ceylon; but the other species is only known removed, for which purpose the berries are from the Himalayas. 95
first macerated. 10.BDELLIUM (Bdula, or B8Xcov).
12. MALABATHRUM (Maláßapov.) Balsamodendron mukul, Hooker. Called
Cinnamomum tamala, Nees, and Gúgal in Sind.
Dálchini," Hin. It appears to be now generally admitted 1 The leaves of this tree, which are known to that this is the species of tree which yielded the the natives of India as tezpait, or more correctly gum-resin known to the ancients as vdellium, tejpát, appear to be identical with the malaand which, according to the author of the bathrum of the Greeks. It was obtained by the Periplus, was exported from Barbarikon on Thinai from the Sesatai, and exported to the Indus, and from Barygaza.
India, conveyed down the Ganges to Gange, Dr. Stocks has described the collection of near its mouth; and it was also brought from Indian bdellium as follows:-"In Sind the the interior of India to Mouziris and Nelkynda gúgal is collected in the cold season by making for export. incisions with a knife in the tree, and letting | Mr. M'Crindle" who seems to regard it the resin fall on the ground. It exudes in as identical with betel (Chavica betel, Mig.), large tears, soft and opaque, hardens and turns (from which, however, it is quite distinct) menbrownish black very slowly; a single tree is tions that according to Ptolemy (VII. ii. 16), said to yield from one to two pounds weight. the best varieties of malabathrum came from It is brought to the bazars of Haidarabad and Kirrbadia-that is to say, Rangpur in Eastern Karachi, where it sells at the rate of four Bengal. The description given in the Periplus shillings for 80lbs.
of how the malabathrum was prepared by the The bdellium of Scripture was, it is sup- Thinai (Chinese P), from leaves which were posed, a siliceous mineral allied to onyx. used by the Sesatai to wrap up the goods
» The Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, by J. W. 97 (Daichint means Chinese Sticks. -ED.) M'Crindle, p. 22. 2. loc. cit.
Conf. Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, pp. 23, 25. In » Conf. Forest Flora, by D. Brandis, p. 22.
his recent work on Ptolemy, ante, Vol. I. p. 379, he * Conf. Forest Flora, by D. Brandis, p. 14.
has however adopted the above identification.
